21 October 2016

An author friend pointed out some exciting news--Headed for the Win was named in Horse Illustrated magazine as one of the 25 Great Horse Reads. Talk about an honor! I started reading this magazine as teenager and now, they've made me feel like a genuine author. How fun!

(Nevermind that it's supposed to be Headed for the Win, not Headed for the WIND, haha!)

20 October 2016

Soup season is in full swing and though I usually just slice up some of our half and half wheat bread, I was about out after making sandwiches all week. So, I found this yummy recipe that really was perfect when in a pinch--they were ready as soon as the soup was!

17 October 2016

"Children are the past, the present, and the future all blended into one. They are consummately precious. Every time a child is born, the world is renewed in innocence. ~Boyd K. Packer

So, big news: our FIFTH baby is on the way.

I told you. Big news.

Yep, we're excited!

Yep, we know how it happened.

(Oops, I washed our underwear together again, heehee!)

Yeah, we're ready. Well, as ready as anyone can ever be. We're trying to catch up on our sleep now.

Yes, we're qualified! As much as a bilingual, lumberjack rocket scientist and a novel-writing, home-improving biologist, who've been married nearly ten years and who are more self-sufficient than most could be--we're talking cloth diapers, gardening, beekeeping, homemade baby food, clothesline-using, chicken keeping, knitting, sewing, cheese-making, foraging and more...I think we're okay parents doing and okay job.

12 October 2016

The girls and I have been having fun getting decorated for Halloween. After making a new wildflower witch broom, we decided to put up a giant spider web. It's a cute addition to our porch and the best part, it cost less than $10. Here's what you need and how to put one together:

You'll Need:

Styrofoam balls (or other material to form spider)Wooden skewerBlack spray paintGoogly eyes, pipe cleaners, etc50ft +/- cotton rope1) Using two styrofoam balls (or other material of your choice), attach the two parts together--I broke a wooden skewer into four pieces, put some hot glue in the middle and pushed them together.

2) If you're using styrofoam, you'll need to either paint by hand with acrylic or cover with aluminum foil or paper mache before spray painting.

3) Paint body with several coats of paint. Allow to dry.

4) Pierce spider body with pencil for the eight legs.

5) Squeeze a small dab of hot glue into the hole before securing a pipe cleaner for the leg. Attach eyes and other decorations, as desired.

6) After the spider is finished and you've chosen a spot for the web, run three strands of cotton rope--up and down, from the top right corner to bottom left, and top left corner to bottom right.

Just in time for the girls to get off the bus!

7) Once the base of the spiderweb is complete, begin by tying knots on each string of the web, moving in a circle. Start with the largest circle. When complete, cut the string and start on a new, smaller circle.

04 October 2016

After making our popular DIY Sparkly Witch Broom, we decided to make something a little different-yet-still-classy this year. Since we have more than enough weeds and wildflowers growing in a little meadow we keep up front, I decided they'd be featured in this year's DIY Wildflower Witch Broom.

Just glad we avoided the ragweed that seemed to be attracting all the local wasps. Shudder.

There were about eight hanging on to the blossoms. Yikes!

So, here's what you need to make a super simple, cute witch broom for this Halloween season:

Usually, Stoney bounces back from injuries pretty fast. Horses kind of have to if they don't want to be an easy target. This time though, Stoney hobbled for weeks, some days no better than a three-legged old man just trying to get to the grass he wanted to nibble. After several visits to and from the vet and debating whether it was a raging abscess or a weird case of founder. I'd take an abscess over founder any day.

With no sign it was an abscess--no hole, no heat, no throbbing pulse--it was decided he was suffering from founder, a dangerous condition where the soft inner part of the hoof becomes inflamed. As you can probably guess, there's not a lot of places for the swelling to go when it's encased in a hard outer hoof. But, just as I'd had enough of his gimping around I called the vet one more time to schedule him for an x-ray to check the bone in his hoof, the mother-of-all-abscesses finally broke through and was able to drain. Thank goodness. Seriously. It was such a relief to see him walking normally, albeit somewhat tenderly, after all the packing, washing, soaking, fretting and praying that he'd get better.

Then, I woke up to find his eye swollen shut.

Equally as worrisome as a hoof injury is an eye injury. There are a million ways a horse can hurt their giant eyeballs and horses seem to be intent on doing so. To say it was disheartening and frustrating was a gross understatement.

I made him as comfortable as possible with some horsey aspirin, a cold compress, and his fly mask to keep the sun and insects out of his eyes and called the vet again. The whole time I worked on him, I said a silent prayer that he'd get better, that it wouldn't cost another arm and leg for the vet after I'd already paid an arm and a leg for his hoof treatment, and that he'd be comfortable as possible.

You know what? It worked.

After being out of commission for a good part of the spring and being cautious with him over the summer, he's finally back, running at full capacity. Jack jokes that Stoney is getting too old to be useful, but Stoney knows he still has a job to do.

Welcome to the farm!

In Case You Didn't Already Know...

I'm a stay at home mother of four beautiful, clever girls, a handsome, daredevil boy, and wife to a brainy aerospace engineer who, ironically, barely has enough common sense to keep himself alive day to day. I've got an incurable disorder causing me to love all creatures of the animal kingdom and I've a 'To Do Before I Die' list that could easily circle the globe several times.